The chief executive at Levi Strauss & Co. is asking customers to leave their firearms at home if they plan on shopping at one of his company’s stores.
In an open letter published Wednesday, Chip Bergh says the time has come for the company to ask its customers to not bring guns into any of the 2,800 Levi’s locations around the world.
“I’ve thought more about safety in the past year than in the previous three decades of my career because of how ‘close to home’ so many incidents with guns have come to impacting people working for this company,” Bergh said, citing the attacks in Paris, Nice and Orlando.
A former Army officer, Bergh says the terror attacks were not the only motivation for the request. Recently, a customer was injured after the gun they were carrying accidently went off inside a Levi’s store.
Levi’s is not making the request a mandatory business practice, only asking for gun owners to “respect our position.”
Bergh says customers shouldn’t be concerned about safety while they are out shopping.
“In the end, I believe we have an obligation to our employees and customers to ensure a safe environment and keeping firearms out of our stores and offices will get us one step closer to achieving that reality,” he added.
To read Bergh’s open letter in its entirety, click here.

SAN FRANCISCO —

The chief executive at Levi Strauss & Co. is asking customers to leave their firearms at home if they plan on shopping at one of his company’s stores.

In an open letter published Wednesday, Chip Bergh says the time has come for the company to ask its customers to not bring guns into any of the 2,800 Levi’s locations around the world.

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“I’ve thought more about safety in the past year than in the previous three decades of my career because of how ‘close to home’ so many incidents with guns have come to impacting people working for this company,” Bergh said, citing the attacks in Paris, Nice and Orlando.

A former Army officer, Bergh says the terror attacks were not the only motivation for the request. Recently, a customer was injured after the gun they were carrying accidently went off inside a Levi’s store.

Levi’s is not making the request a mandatory business practice, only asking for gun owners to “respect our position.”

Bergh says customers shouldn’t be concerned about safety while they are out shopping.

“In the end, I believe we have an obligation to our employees and customers to ensure a safe environment and keeping firearms out of our stores and offices will get us one step closer to achieving that reality,” he added.